[2] Following the Al-Hambra decree after the conclusion of the Reconquista in Iberia, Sephardi Jews began arriving in Ottoman Palestine in the 16th century, settling especially in the four holy cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias.
In addition to the Jewish communities of Ottoman Palestine, many Jews of coastal Lebanese cities, with whom they maintained strong relations, adopted a variant of MPJA.
However, as Hebrew became the dominant language of the Yishuv, and later, the State of Israel, the speach community sharply declined.
The number of MPJA speakers at the end of the 20th century was still more than one hundred in its Galilean and Jerusalem varraints.
[2] MPJA lexicon contains several influences from its Maghrebi origins as well as Hebrew, Ladino, and Aramaic loanwords for several specifically Jewish terms.